In the 50s I worked at a Hancock service station. GAS PUMPS ABSOLUTELY BLEND AT THE PUMP. If enough diesel fuel gets in the cylinder, you can hydro-lock the cylinders, resulting in a blown head gasket, cracked cylinder head or other serious problems that can lead your vehicle down the road to a quick and final death. The first exploits the fact that many Wayne fuel dispensers have a remote control option to allow station owners and fuel inspectors to easily access them. I spent days/weeks debugging at an Atlanta terminal (where the tankers fill-up). In my experience it is just the other way round. I remember when kerosene and white gas were dispensed by pumps at a different fuel island. One guy says, all of the new ones are blenders. Gilbarco pumps use a 100% to 0% blend using the 87 grade as being the main product flow then the pump node adjust how much 91 is allowed in to make that mid grade of 91 octane here in California. The processing power of dispenser electronics is going up rapidly, mostly driven by newer IT security requirements to keep PIN and card information secure. Theres a diaphragm that constricts the flow to a known rate. I dont think this blended thing has ever been an option in the U.K. We just got lead, no lead, or diesel. Cost of this non-ethanol is typically about 50 cents a gallon more than regular. now lets get pump designers to replace the 20 cent 8 bit processor running the pump with something can respond in less than a second. Refreshing. In some parts of the world, a gas pump is sometimes called a bowser, although in the United States that term usually means a fuel truck for aircraft. We had a few stations that carried 89, but that was a less common grade in this area. Theres a small hole near the end of the nozzle that has its other end near a flexible diaphragm and a Venturi tube. Thx. It has been at $8.25. Im a pump tech. Gas pumps rely on a device called a pulser to measure how much gas comes out of a pump, telling it how much to charge a customer. According to wikipedia Fluids are a phase of matter and include liquids, gases and plasmas. Products were always blended to their final form at either the pipeline terminal or the refinery while loading. Mine had a spider who crawled around the pitot tube cover which you put on while in the hangar and built a nest which didnt cause problems until mostly down the runway on takeoff (yikes). Ask someone who isnt technically inclined how a TV signal works or how a cell phone works, or even how a two-way switch in a hall light works and you are likely to get either a blank stare or a wildly improbable explanation. Copyright 2022 ClickOrlando.com is managed by Graham Digital and published by Graham Media Group, a division of Graham Holdings. Plus, were talking about highly combustible materials, there has to be more to it then just a big tank of gas and a pump. What fun it is to climb on top of a trailer in that weather! While gas thieves often sell to regular people at a discount, they tend to steal more from independently owned stores. Too bad my memory is 20 years old (I left a job in 2000 programming a controller that talked to pumps), but I remember that blender pumps were a thing back in the late 90s. I thought by add ons, you meant additives to the fuel, not the pumps. (Bernoullis principle.). I used to work on a system that talked to gas pumps back in the late 90s. The pumps are located in the storage tank. The training consisted of reading a pamphlet that had all of the same warnings that were posted on the pumps. Weights and measures fluids specialist for 35 years. State CFO Jimmy Patronis told News 6 he is concerned about the impact on the independent trucking industry and Florida consumers. That led to thieves learning how to manipulate pumps and payment systems, he said, and that practice has become more common as gas prices have risen. In Texas the 89 octane is blended 65% 87 octane and 35% 93 octane. This has been dumbed-down substantially, because electronics is almost always cheaper than mechanical devices, so most mechanical devices are made as simply as possible, leaving the tricky job of controlling them to microcontrollers. Next time try and comment on subjects you are actually educated in. Then the 95 octane unleaded eurosuper came and now this is in reality the normal gas, if you do not buy a special premium or racing or oherwise fance namend much mor expensive product with 99 or 100 octane. That might be why blender systems are only used where there previously werent a big selection originally, and its financially a really dumb idea to add a extra tank. Some pumps do blend the gas. They had a hand-cranked pump inside the store for this, that worked like the Bowser pump it pumped kerosene into a glass bowl, and that would then drain into my 5-gallon can. They have the money to invest in color touchscreens, etc, but error messages and status updates are not manually dismissableyou have to wait like 10 seconds for them to go away. I think that ended with the introduction of 91 octane regular, 98 octane was still leaded for cars that needed it. You left out the most sophisticated part of the system the mechanical analog computer that used to be driven by that flow meter, to keep a running total of both the flow and the price. Gas theft has existed for nearly as long as there have been gas stations, Lenard said. And as the article suggest at mainly a 60/40 blend(even though the price per gallon is in 10 cent increments) And Im not talking about 20 year old pumps either. Wayne dispensers do the same thing but reversed using 91 as the main then metering in 87 to make mid grade. But its possible the other way round: 5 filling manholes and only gas (95 oct) and diesel for sale. The results could be very expensive! Just a flexible diaphragm, a tube, a spring, and some clever arrangement of all the parts. Which would require that ethanol be a fire retardant, since they usually add no more than 10% ethanol into the mix. The site used blender pumps to sell three grades from two tanks, and only premium would dispense. They are substances with zero shear modulus, or, in simpler terms, substances which cannot resist any shear force applied to them.. Hackaday Podcast 179: Danger Chess, Corona Motors, An Omni-Walker, And A Fast Talking Telescope, This Week In Security: Symbiote, Smart Locks, And CosmicStrand, Never Too Rich Or Thin: Compress Sqlite 80%. NE has very few blenders as the other states use them at almost every site. As it happens, I was stationed in Oregon in 1977-80, after the law was passed but while leaded gas was still available. nasa kennedy rrm spacewalk But there are some things so commonplace that even the most tech-savvy of us dont bother thinking about. And I saw something about paying 4$ a gallon in the comments here, we pay $6,92 per gallon, which at the moment is low. Today they call white gas camp stove fuel. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. The additives are very important for modern engines. So it BECAME a nanny state thing. You are misinformed. The 3 way switch redirects where the electricity will travel to. But what about the automatic shut off? Midgrade is most definitely blended at the dispenser. Gasoline contamination can also damage the fuel pump and mess up diesel injectors. Lots of safety features at the pumpscrash valves at ground level that snap shut to prevent flow should a collision occur, Intrinsically Safe electronic controls that prevent sparks (prevent igniting vapors), etc. I did a google search and the USGS.gov website says that water at the bottom of the ocean is under about 150 times the pressure of the atmosphere and is only about 1% denser as a result. https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/bvMAAOSwVBRb3Iww/s-l300.jpg. The Bowser company went on to manufacture mechanical meters as well. Aaah, I can still smell the fumes! Beyond these, youll get incomplete combustion, initially characterized by large amounts of black smoke. NBC News found such keys were also widely available for sale online. Thats also the reason why 3 way switches dont have labels of off or on printed on them. This is accomplished with a blend valve. When you buy midgrade gas, you are really just mixing regular and premium together right in the pump. IE 11 is not supported. And yes, Im just messing with you. The video below from [Max Machinery] shows how they work. Fortunately I got out of a truck 5 years ago and dont have to deal with that any more. The diaphragm also expands to slow down when you approach the point where the pump will shut off (for example, if you asked for $10 worth of gas). Richard C. Corson originally came up with a version of the automatic shutoff in 1939 and received a patent in 1942. The trucks usually have a few different compartments. So far more than 50 cases involving use of the device have been reviewed by state and federal investigators. That usually only happened when it was -20 and the injectors were frozen. I think this was to discourage people from using leaded gas, if they did not really need it. The mind boggles at up to 5 grades being on sale! To me, three-way switches are the ones on lamps that have a ring terminal for dual filament bulbs, because of the three brightness settings. (Comment Policy). While Waynes gas dispensers require remote users to enter a key code to access its controls, many station owners never change it from the default setting, Denton said. So far state and federal investigators in Orlando and Jacksonville have recovered about 10 devices and it appears they are being mass-produced. Remembering the variable blend pumps are just youngsters. A 74-year-old's lottery winnings were withheld when the DEO said he was overpaid for unemployment benefits. If it wont mute I dont use that station again. Where do we find money? he said. Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. Protip: See the buttons around the screen? 100% gaurantee they will be blending at the dispenser. We had a pump that the customer could dial in the octane they wanted, and the price was automatically adjusted. If a gas station offers 91 octane it is in reality 95 and the price is mostly the same. Thats a local transaction number to track the progress of the sale. (Yeah, people do that, and theres an auto-disconnect fixture up there.). The grades we mostly deal with here are a Regular straight 85 octane, Mid 85 oct with 10% ethanol added to bump the octane to 87), sometimes a Super Midgrade 40% 85 oct, 40% 91 oct & 10% eth for an 89 octane rating, and a premium which was either 91 or 93 octane depending on if ethanol was added. Because diesel fuel is heavier than gasoline, it can sink to the bottom of your gas tank, resulting in the injection of both gas and diesel into the intake manifold or the cylinder. As a delivery driver, you REALLY did not want to mix up tanks when delivering. Im 100% certain they dont have that many tanks underground. And although you clearly know at what flow rate a fuel delivery truck gets filled at, you are hardly qualified to discuss how these actually work. Any slow response time would probably be due to waiting on hardware to reset, or talking to the credit card network. Its not illegal, theres no law on the books that says the device is contraband.. I used to drive a TT. It was funny to watch, because many Oregonians had never pumped their own gas before. The card reader part (Gilbarco CRIND/Wayne CAT) used an 8-bit CPU in those days of 1-4 line displays, but Gilbarcos then-new terminal with the big color screen actually ran Linux, I know because I captured its boot sequence from a serial port. Andrew wrote a reply on project log New CIS sensors bought on internet, let's HACK! The Exxon truck and the Texaco truck get their gas at the same place that the Shell truck does. As far as additive, I have as a driver had to manually add the BP additive when the injector at the rack was not operating. Not forgetting the tech that reads your plate so various government agencies know where youve been. As little as 1% gasoline contamination will lower the diesel flash point by 18 degrees C. This means the diesel fuel will prematurely ignite in the diesel engine, which can lead to engine damage. Even so liquids are compressible, just not very much. Every manufacturer has a blender pump. I usually got 640 km (400 miles) out of 50-52 litres (13.7 US gallon). Or explanation? Modern dispensers have their own internal network with outward facing IP addresses to provide high speed card processing at the pumps. But then, even THOSE are four-way, since off is a brightness as well. We lead the nation in both new pump technology and emissions restriction, and most of the gas pumps have blending 3 way valves. The Venturi effect causes a pressure drop when you compress a moving fluid. Like you pointed out, most trailers have multiple compartments, with the bigger ones usually having 5-6 compartments of differing sizes capable of holding up to a total of 11,000 gallons or so. The fire will plug the holes in the catalyst, destroying it and leaving you with a repair job well into the four-figures. The dumbest thing was that a couple of times I got L3 support calls when the pump handle didnt click off and the gas spilled over. Such stores tend to have only a handful of employees working at a time, unlike major chains that can employ security staff and better surveillance equipment, Denton said. I worked for a company that specialized in fuel delivery in the Midwest that delivered products to various customers, such as gas stations, mining operations and airports. I admit that I have only delivered in the upper Midwest parts of the country, but Ive worked with guys that did delivery in Arizona, California and several other states in the southwest, and they said operations were essentially the same there. I always was in the back of my mind to check up on how the nozzle works. In the old days, it just drove the little dials that showed the price. And if you continue to use the fuel, you can cause real damage to the vehicles computer sensors by either overheating them or covering them in soot such that they cant detect anything. While theres no formal law enforcement metric to measure the trend, 1 in 4 convenience-store gas station owners say fuel thefts have been rising since March, said Jeff Lenard, a vice president of the National Association of Convenience Stores, an industry group. Sometimes there is a difference of 0.1 cent, but purely for marketing reasons :-). As I was about to leave, people started saying that the gas had stopped pumping! Most American gas stations use pumps from one of two manufacturers: Wayne Fueling Systems or Gilbarco Veeder-Root. All the blending has to be done onsite somewhere likely in the pump. Recently weve had premium options appear, but no mix-grades. Also it ran on a 6809 back then and I loved getting paid to write 6809 assembly code!). They do I fact blend at the pump but now its done by the computer base. I remeber, when I was a child, in the 1970ies, perhaps 1980ies there were Mix pumps where you could get 25%, 50% or 75% of super mixed with the rest regular gas. For example, if you squeeze a rubber tube in the middle, whatever is flowing through the tube will be at a lower pressure after the compressed part of the tube. Sorry, but I work for a company that installs gas station equipment, and blenders outnumber pure-product dispensers 100:1. But this was in Texas, so not as many botique blends to keep track of, and I only ever remember it being done for retail sites. Some high performance motors need high octane to properly work (most direct injection ones), but it doesnt mean they will have better mpg with higher than specified octane rating. Best of my knowledge all aircraft have them, not just old ones. Gas hackers take advantage of the fact that gas pump equipment in the U.S. is heavily standardized and largely relies on a handful of manufacturers that often dont include strong security protections. Kevin Collier is a reporter covering cybersecurity, privacy and technology policy for NBC News. All that does is make fuel expensive for everybody else, Patronis said, Not only would I support banning it (the device), but even if youre caught using it making sure there is a multiple degree felony attached to it.. Which is why I usually fill 4-5 gallon cans with 91/93 octane or pump first into my truck before filling a small can. After about 15 mins of freaking out, it turned out that the low-grade tank was empty. Experts say it probably costs $40 to $50 to make each device, which fits perfectly with the pulser. In 1980, I lived on the DelMarVa peninsula, in a mobile home that had a kerosene heater, so I had to buy kerosene, which I usually did at one of the local Ma-and-Pa grocery stores. Depending on the mix, you can get partially-burned diesel fuel which leaves bigtime deposits on pistons, valves and spark plugs. You have to admit, theres probably a lot more to it than you would have thought. At that time all leaded gas. Take diesel for example, it has way higher density than gasoline, but only around 25 octane rating. seal seals rotary shaft ring sealing rings pressure Sylvanus Bowser sold a pump as early as 1885 to sell kerosene that people used in lamps and stoves. Sometimes simple mechanical devices/sensors are the best. Hate to contradict you, but in fact almost all multi product dispensers MPD that have more than two grades are actually blending the product.